Many people fear a possible water shortage, which would be a world-wide catastrophe. How can a planet that is composed of mostly water run out? The facts are that only 2% of the earth’s water is fresh, and most of that consists of the icebergs in the polar ice caps. This isn’t as bad as running out of fossil fuels; we already know how to convert salt water into fresh water. Desalinization is the term, and even though it may be a bit costly, it will work. I for one believe that dying from the lack of fresh water would be worse than going into a little debt. Also, how soon could this happen? Antarctica covers more than 5million square miles alone. It could take a long time to drink that much water, especially seeing how most people drink less than 8oz of water a day.
So how is it that a planet that is composed of mostly water can run out of fresh, safe drinking water? Scientist, the ones who are to busy creating new fuels and weapons, when they could resolve this problem much faster. Our knowledge and technologies are said to double every six months, so it shouldn’t take long for chemists to find a quick way to desalinize the ocean water.
There are no water shortages today; the problem we face is poor water management that can lead to the water shortage. Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. Around the world, however, 1.1 billion people get their water from rivers and ponds or from springs and wells open to the air and subject to contamination. China and India together have the most people without safe water or improved sanitation. In the case of sanitation, 1.5 billion people in those two countries do without. So the real problem isn’t that we will run out of fresh water, but that the scientist should find an easier, cost effective way to desalinize the water around the world. Maybe they can put this on the list next to finding water on mars?